2020 SECAC Juried Members’ Exhibition

11.30.2020

Virtual Reception Friday, Dec. 4, 7:00PM

Participating artists: 

Katherine Evelyn Chudy, Kate Windley, Jonathan Durham, Brent Dedas, Alexandra Giannell, Eddy López, Raymond Gaddy, Hamlet Dobbins, Shannon Johnstone, Nell Gottlieb, Harry Boone, Lauren Cardenas, Micah Cash, Mark Mcleod, Bridget Kirkland, Melissa Harshman, Kathy Varadi, Jason Lee, Allison Grant, Jojin Van Winkle, Melissa Yes, Paul Collins, Alexandra Robinson, Belinda Haikes, Barb Bondy, Lanette Blankenship

SECAC, in collaboration with VCUarts and the Anderson (Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA) are pleased to present the 2020 SECAC Juried Members’ Exhibition, with guest Juror Sarah Eckhardt, Associate Curator of Modern & Contemporary Art, Virginia Museum of Fine Art. 

Consistent with the fully virtual conference, this unique, virtual members’ exhibition makes it possible for all conference attendees, regardless of their physical location, to “visit” and enjoy the work of their talented peers—keeping art central to the experience, as it is to the purpose of SECAC’s annual convening. 

From the Juror:

With over 400 entries across a wide span of mediums that ranged from paintings, drawings, and sculpture, to installation art and video, the abundance of strong works submitted to this year’s SECAC juried art exhibition made for a difficult selection process. The limitations imposed by the pandemic also presented a need to imagine how these works would function when converted into virtual objects in a virtual space. These challenges, however, provided an exciting opportunity to work with the team at VCUarts and the Anderson as they produced a virtual exhibition that features the work of 26 SECAC members. We are grateful to all of the artists that submitted work and to the artists in the exhibition who were open to making the adaptations necessary to translate their artworks into cyber objects.   Even though the art cannot be experienced in person this year, the diversity of perspectives offered by these artists will hopefully reach an even larger audience through this online platform.

— Sarah Eckhardt

Download a Standalone Version of the Exhibition for Windows Here:

PERFORMANCE, NAVIGATION, AND CONTENT INTERACTIONS

General:

To support accessibility, this project uses Unity WebGL to run directly in your desktop browser. For the best possible in-browser experience we recommend Firefox, but it is also compatible with Chrome, Safari and Edge. (It is not, unfortunately, currently iOS or Android compatible.) Depending on your connection, it may take a moment to load. Once it’s open, if you experience anything funky (lagging play, etc.) try closing other open tabs which may be using up the browsers processing power. If you’re still getting less than optimal play, try refreshing the virtual exhibition tab and then closing other applications which may be running on your computer in the background. 

Cursor and Keyboard Commands:

– After launching, LEFT-CLICK inside the viewport to activate navigation.

– Use your CURSOR to control the viewing angle by holding LEFT-CLICK in the viewport and dragging the cursor in the direction you’d like the camera to move (i.e. click and move the cursor left to pan the camera left, etc.)

– Use your ARROW KEYS or WASD to control player movement. Left and right (A and D) will move you sideways without changing the camera angle. 

– When facing an artwork, RIGHT-CLICK to zoom in for a closer view. Right-click again to zoom back out. 

– When prompted, press “E” to open documents and linked files in another browser tab. 

– To end your session simply close the tab. If you are using the standalone application, press "ESCAPE" to open the pause menu and click "EXIT."

Navigation Description: 

If you’ve ever played ‘first-person’ video games in the past, the navigation should be familiar and fairly intuitive. If you haven’t, just imagine that the camera angle represents your perspective as though you were standing in the gallery. Player movement is controlled through a combination of cursor and keyboard arrow keys, with your cursor controlling the angle of view and arrow keys (or WASD) controlling movement relative to your angle of view: forward, sideways, backward, etc. Hopefully you’ll get the hang of it pretty quickly! And you can review the cursor and keyboard commands above for a more detailed description of the navigation. 

As you move through the virtual environment you can activate hyperlinks by moving closely to linked objects, including artworks, within the virtual environment. When you're near a linked object a message will pop up telling you which button to push and what will happen when you do. (i.e. “Press E to open exhibition checklist”.) Pressing the button on your keyboard will open the linked content in a new tab in your browser. To close new content simply close its tab.